Resilient Design Resource Kits

Combating Erosion, Deforestation, and Landslides

NEEDS STATEMENT:
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM AND WHY DO WE CARE?

Landslides and mudslides primarily occur when heavy rains destabilize soil on steep slopes, causing them to crumble. Hundreds of these catastrophic events take place each year, causing thousands of deaths globally. Damage to buildings and infrastructure reaches into the billions annually in the US alone. Deforestation, development in landslide-prone areas, poor agricultural practices, soil erosion, and other effects of climate change, such as cascading cycles of drought, wildfires and floods, are increasingly threatening people’s livelihoods, homes, food security, and infrastructure.

TAKING A SYSTEMS-BASED APPROACH TO BUILDING INTEGRATED KNOWLEDGE

Urban sprawl, steep and highly dense urban areas at greatest landslide risk in poor, informal settlements, and a desire for optimal views within formal settlements all encourage encroachment into dangerous terrain. Designers can work with communities and master planners to create blueprints for public green space networks, devise organic agriculture, permaculture and agroecology plans, strategize to restore soil health and mitigate erosion, and in the worst-case scenario, relocate people to safer communities.

WII’s Field Stations program in Bogota and Medellin, Colombia, in 2019 brought emerging and established designers, planners, and theorists into contact with informal settlements to learn how local and sub-national experts and community leaders strategize to mitigate impacts of climate-related risks to informal settlements within the regional watershed.

POTENTIAL IMPACTS, VALUE, AND OUTCOMES

Resilient design and research efforts that focus on rising landslides and erosion might produce outcomes such as:

Planning for the reforestation of trees and brush, along with responsible and reliable, low-tech. irrigation systems and robust agroecological systems to preserve and stabilize slopes, mitigate erosion, restore soil health, and provide community health.
Incorporating mixed land use parcels into planning for public spaces, like Medellin, Colombia, is doing with its Metropolitan Greenbelt project.
Reconstructing slopes that are resistant to landslides utilizing erosion-control techniques, geotextiles, soils, and hydrology to mitigate risks.
Mapping land use site selection, which is critical to reducing the risks of landslides.
Identifying certain soils that resist the forces that catalyze landslides better than others, and where they can best be utilized.
Designing with natural defense systems to lessen the danger of landslides.
Developing innovative geotextile wraps that can help improve soil performance.